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Om Pizza & Eats Pvt Ltd, the Indian franchisee of US-based pizza chain Papa John’s, has announced a merger on Tuesday with Fred Mouawad’s pizza business of Global Franchise Architects (GFA) operating under the Pizza Corner brand in South India.
Papa John’s currently has 15 operating restaurants in India.
With this merger, all 70 Pizza Corner outlets spread across Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad will be converted to Papa John’s branded restaurants through Q1 of 2015.
This will take the total count of Papa John’s restaurants to 85 in nine major cities across the country, making it the third largest pizza chain after Domino’s and Pizza Hut.
“Through this merger, we have the opportunity to meet the growing demand for pizzas by combining Papa John’s world class pedigree with Pizza Corner’s local expertise. The QSR (quick service restaurant) segment in India of which pizzas is a part of a $2.5-billion market growing at a rapid clip of 25 per cent year-on-year,” Joseph Cherian, CEO of GFA Global, told BusinessLine .
Cherian will take over as the CEO at Papa John’s India, while remaining a key board member at GFA. GFA operations for its other brands — Cream & Fudge, Coffee World and The Donut Baker — will remain in Bengaluru and work independently of Papa John’s.
Expansion driveThe merger is in line with GFA’s expansion drive announced last year with plans to open a total of 40 stores across all its brands.
Having crossed the 100-store number in India, GFA shareholders decided to pump in investment to support expansion initiatives. Om Pizza & Eats Pvt Ltd is owned by Avan Projects Pvt Ltd and promoted by Atulya Mittal.
Mouawad’s GFA will be the second largest shareholder in Om Pizza & Eats after Mittal.
TVS Capital and the Jawad Group of Bahrain will continue to hold a minority stake in the merged entity.
“We appreciate the faith that our investors GFA and TVS have placed in us to complete this merger. We are optimistic on the outlook for our investment in Om Pizza,” said Atulya Mittal, Director – Avan Projects.
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